Question 125692
Sometimes you get locked into the concept of trying to find a formula to fit a problem, and
if that causes you difficulty you may just want to try to think your way through things and
let your common sense guide you to an answer.
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So here you are with $200 in your purse and you want to impress your friends by renting something
with a little class to haul them around. You have to budget that money so you don't exceed
your $200. 
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The first thing you know is that every day you rent that car, your going to have to pay the
rental agency $24.95. You plan on renting it for 5 days. So that part of your bill ... 5 days
of renting at $24.95 each day is going to set you back $124.75 ... (from $24.95 times 5).
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When you fork that amount of money over to the rental agency, how much of the $200 will 
you have left to spend on mileage? Let's see ... started with $200 and spent $124.75 so far.
That means the amount left for mileage is $200 minus $124.75 = $75.25.
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You get into the car and start out ... every time you go a mile it costs you 49 cents or
$0.49. One mile ... 49 cents. Two miles 98 cents. Basically you're going to be able to 
drive 2 miles for every dollar you have. And since you have $75.25 to spend on mileage you
can drive about 150 miles for your $75.
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But that is only an approximate answer. To get a more accurate answer, you have to ask
yourself how many 49 cents there are in $75.25. You get that number by dividing $75.25 by $0.49
and you get the answer of 153.57 miles. So the answer is that you can drive the car 153 miles
during the 5 days you have it. If you drive it 154 miles you break your budget.
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Now you have to ask yourself if it's worth $200 to impress your friends with a luxury car
to haul them around for 5 days, but limiting your total driving to 150 miles.
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If the answer is no, then rent a more economical car or get a new set of more practical 
friends.
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